Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are medicinal compounds of known value in cold preparations and other medicinal uses. The compounds, which are diasteriomers have in the past been produced by procedures involving a resolution step to obtain the desired stereoisomer, which is always a laborious and expensive process because of the fractional crystallization and recycle loops necessary. It is also known that some olefins can be asymmetrically hydrogenated over rhodium and other metal coordination catalysts having optically active ligands.